Team Teaching Week 1

This was my first week of Team Teaching. It was a wonderful feeling to have a class. I have consistently been going back in forth in my short 22-year-old life questioning if teaching was right for me. Me having the hands on experience in Mongolia has proved to myself that this is what I can imagine myself doing for a career. The classes were split into two groups. Beginner and novice –low. The group that I taught was novice low. What I admired most about these students was there drive and excitement to learn. There were the occasional talkative students but nonetheless they had a drive that I deeply admired. In America, education is a given right to citizens. There are many communities that you go to where students are disengaged to learn. I think some of the excitement is largely due to the fact that they are being taught English by native speakers. The students also love being around Americans because we are different from what they see everyday.

I also solo-taught this week. I taught the students the concept of time in English. I imagined it to be a topic that would be relatively easy to students but it was very challenging for them. At times when I was teaching and the students were not understanding the model of the language quickly, I had to constantly remind myself that this is not their native language and things that may come easy to me will not be so easy for them to comprehend. I overall love the feeling of teaching and not only that, I love making connections with students who genuinely want to be around you. I am trying to detach myself emotionally from these students because I will only be in my soum for 3 more weeks. We’ll see how the next few weeks of training plays out!

The Students in my team-teaching class.

Me and some of the girls in my class. They are very precious jewels!

Weekly Update/Naadam!!!

       So this is the week that all of the Pre Service Trainees in Mongolia have been waiting for! This is the week of Naadam.  Naadam is a national holiday in Mongolia. The two-three day event consists of the three manliest sports in Mongolia, which include wrestling, archery, and horseback racing. The excitement isn’t over yet! Aside from these sports, when you exit the stadium there are what seems like two dozen gers set up where community members sell hosher, which can be best described as a delicious Mongolian empanada and beverages of all sorts. Also there are a lot of arcade games and other fun activities to engage in surrounding the stadium.

            Being that I am TEFL I was lucky enough to be granted basically the entire week off. The day before Naadam, my Language/Cultural Facilitators (LCF’s) arranged a Mongolian food lesson with our group. We had this food lesson at my site mate April’s host family’s house. The foods that we learned to prepare were hosher, soyven, and bashn teh shol (dumpling soup). Please excuse my American spelling of the Mongolian foods. The foods that we created were very appetizing. I am also delighted that we were able to spend time with our LCF’s in a more informal environment where we could kick back, relax, and enjoy each other’s company. That day I consumed more food than my body could handle. Unfortunately it did not sit well with my stomach and I ended up paying the price for my overindulgence. Nonetheless I did not allow that to completely deter my fun for Naadam.

            The first day of the Suhkbaatar Naadam was great. It was my first time engaging in this new experience. The smiles on everyone’s faces, kids jumping up and down in a joyous melody, and people stuffing their faces with pounds of hosher brought along warmth to my heart. Although I was not feeling my best, seeing other people happy made me feel content. I also was able to see a few of my fellow PST’s who are training in sites relatively close to me. It’s always great seeing Americans even if it is for a momentary conversation or two. The first day I was only with my host dad, 18 year old sister, and 4 year old brother.  We did not stay to long because I was feeling a bit nauseous. Nonetheless I was able to view them eat hosher and I also played some of the games that were outside of the stadium and I won a precious tiger necklace. I also saw community members, adults and children. It was a good feeling being able to recognize their faces and being able to greet them with smiles and general conversation.

            Day 2 of Naadam went well. I was with my entire family and I was able to eat and consume more than water. My family and I took a lot of pictures. I was wearing my Mongolian del that was present from my mother with pride. The radiant orange and gold colors complemented my complexion finely. I also observed two of the three sports, wrestling and horseback racing. Mongolians I must say, have to be one of the strongest people in the world. The sports that are celebrated during Naadam take a lot of training and endurance. Watching the games with my host family made me feel like I was one with them and with the culture. Overall my week has been great and I have been savoring every moment as much as I can. It seems as though the greatest moments tend to flash before my eyes but I am holding on to each memory as it comes.

Me and My host family outside of the stadium

Health in Mongolia

Being in a country that is considered a third world nation has it’s many struggles. I often find myself comparing my life here to my life in America. In some instances I feel like it is unjust for me to do that because there are different factors such as culture and historic tradition that influence the way that people live in Mongolia. One of the first things that appeared different to life in “America Land” was the health conditions in Mongolia. I did not really notice this until I was placed in my training site.

Where I am currently located is called a soum. The best way to describe a soum would to categorize it as a suburb. Anyway, prior to coming and during my stay in Mongolia, I had to receive various immunizations to ensure that my health remained the same. There are many factors that influence the reason why Mongolians may not have the same health advantages that are offered in the U.S. For one there is a lack of resources depending on where you live. In the soum that I live in, most, if not all people do not have running water. They have to get their water from a well. Luckily for me, my family has a well in their hacha/yard. 

Aside from that the more isolated one is the less likely it will be that they will have a health facility that can surpass all their needs. When I traveled to the clinic that is in my soum one thing that I picked up on was that there wasn’t running water or that the work facilitators did not carry out certain cleanly traditions that were practiced back home (wearing gloves). Also I was told that if there were certain health problems that could not be treated in someone’s soum they would have to travel to the nearest aimag or to the capital Ulaanbaatar. Depending on where you live this trip to the capital could be anywhere from 5-15 hours.

Mongolians recognize that they are faced with certain conditions and they do take some steps to prevent illnesses. One thing I noticed was that Mongolians usually only drink water that has been boiled. Mongolians love their teas (milk tea, and green tea are my family’s favorites).  I am a fan of Mongolian teas. It has an acquired taste but once you get used to it, you begin to crave it throughout your day. Also Mongolians apply small portion of salt to their teas to prevent dehydration. This is something I would have never thought to do. I plan on doing it in the future when I am on my own.

Now I am not writing this blog to bash Mongolians, it is more to give an insight to friends and family members who are reading this to experience this part of the world through my eyes. I have taken the good and the bad and I beginning to formulate my own theories on how I will spend my next two years, trying to remain as healthy as I possibly can. I have to momentarily abandoned my American way of life and live like the Mongolians. I am more than excited to do so and I cannot wait to experience the hardships and also fantastic memories that will come my way!